Tuesday, December 29, 2009

end of year stuff ...

... well I'm not going to contribute to the ubiquitous end of year lists, partly because they are ubiquitous but mostly because I can't be arsed.And I actually don't really believe that you care what I think.I can't resist reading them though. Mainly so I can shout "you must be joking - there is NO WAY that is the best album this year!", or "why the fuck haven't they included ...".It's also a way for me to catch up on stuff I've missed. Although at least half of it I realise that the reason I've missed it is that it's just not very good.

Talking of catching up on stuff, for some reason I missed Marianne Faithfull's Easy Come Easy Go album last year. The stand out track on that is a duet with Nick Cave of a Decemberist's song - you can't go wrong with a combination like that can you?Here's a recording of her doing it live (sadly with out Cave buts it's a great performance) -

Some good tracks I've missed this year and discovered on end of year lists include Hard Times by Patrick Wolf -

I'm surprised Mumford and Sons aren't in more lists - I love their album -

I'm equally surprised that the Bat For Lashes album features high up in a load of run-downs. It just didn't do it for me - but I'm going to give it another go to see if they're right and I'm wrong.

Another oft' listed album that I was also disappointed in was Bill Callahan's "Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle" - and I love Bill like a brother - but the production on this album, the drum sound in particular, I find really distracting.

Cue more surprise that We Gave It All Away... And Now We Are Taking It Back by Mungolian Jetset didn't appear outside dance oriented lists - it deserves a wider listening -